Child of Flame
(Crown of Stars: Book 4)
Kate Elliott
DAW Books, October 2000
ISBN: 0886778921 (paperback)
Child of Flame takes us far beyond the borders of the war-torn kingdoms of Wendar and Varre as Alain is drawn into the heart of an ancient conflict between humankind and their dread enemy, the Cursed Ones; Liath faces her most difficult trial in a land of exile; and Sanglant struggles to reach Henry with a warning about the conspiracy of sorcerers who have sworn to put an end to the Aoi--no matter how much destruction may be unleashed by their workings of magic....
Lost and alone, Alain is caught in a desperate struggle for survival even as he finds himself unwittingly drawn into the heart of an ancient conflict between humankind and their dread, the CUrsed ones...
Torn away from Sanglant and their child by creatures not born of earth, Liath faces her most difficult trial in a land of exile.
For only there she can hope to discover the truth of her parentage and learn the actual nature of her unique powers...
Still staggered by the shock of unexpectedly losing his wife, the bastard prince Sanglant is nevertheless determined to seek out his father, King Henry.
For only Sanglant can bring warning of the conspiracy of sorcerers who have sworn to put an end to the Aoi, the Lost Ones, once and for all #&151;no matter how much destruction may be unleashed by their workings of magic...
But King Henry has already turned his attention away from his own troubled realm. The lure of the throne of Aosta and the imperial crown, unclaimed for two generations, is too strong for him to ignore.
As a Quman army, sweeping in from the eastern steppes, ravages the Wendish countryside, Henry marches south, ignoring the pleas for aid from his beleaguered subjects...
And the tides of war and magic wreak havoc across the lands, the great Cataclysm, long foretold in the stars, draws inexorably closer...
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